The Complete Book of Wargames

The Complete Book of Wargames

by The Editors of Consumer Guide with Jon Freeman

Fireside / Simon and Schuster, 1980

I played wargames in the 1970s, when I was a teenager. At the time I wasn't aware of this book, and looking through it nowadays transports me back 45+ years to an era when there were no computers, no internet, phones were rotary-dial, and when you went to the more higher-end hobby stores and department stores, you would see Avalon Hill games on the shelves. And in the pages of magazines like National Lampoon, you'd see ads from Strategy and Tactics magazine, aimed at the under-40 male demographic.

Being a publication of Consumer Reports, which usually covered things like automobiles, appliances, lawn tractors, hi-fi equipment, and other items, 'The Complete Book of Wargames' has a rather low-budget printing quality. 

In 1980, the year the book was published, the tabletop gaming enterprise was gaining the attention of Wall Street and other entities, mainly through the rising popularity (and notoriety) of Dungeons and Dragons.

'The Complete Book' opens with some chapters that provide an overview of the field, the design and conception of wargames, and how to play a wargame, using as an example a game called Kassala, concocted for this book. These sections work quite well in explaining things to a novice.

The core of the book is 11 chapters that provide reviews of selected wargames, as categorized by the time period covered by the game. 

Things start with ancient-era warfare, proceed through medieval times to the Napoleonic Wars, and then on into the conflicts of the 20th century, including Cold War 'what if' scenarios. An entire chapter is devoted to science fiction and fantasy games.

If you were a wargamer during the Baby Boom era then you're sure to see some favorites mentioned in the pages of 'The Complete Book'. For me, it's seeing Panzerblitz, Sixth Fleet, and Invasion America that brings back memories.  

The book does a pretty good job of covering games from a gamut of publishers, from the major companies Avalon Hill and SPI, down to the smaller, indie publishers like TSR, Metagaming Concepts, and Game Designer's Workshop (among others).

The rating system for each game is pretty well thought-out and useful, avoiding the fanboy attitudes that tended, back in those days, to muddy the waters. The reviews present a 'complexity' score (a '9', for Avalon Hill's Gettysburg, is the highest score given in the book) that reflects when a game has a steep learning curve and perhaps best is left to the most hardcore gamers.

The book's final chapter addresses 'Computers and the Future of Wargaming'. At this stage (i.e., 1980) of computer development, the term 'microcomputers' was used for what we now call PCs, and the field was defined by text adventures like Zork. But the authors of the book were confident that over time, more and more titles would be released on computers (which of course turned out to be quite true).

I note that the Board Game Geek website offers a listing of every game featured in the pages of 'The Complete Book'. 

(Needless to say, copies of these games that are in very good or better condition are going to have high prices, so nostalgia will come with its costs).

Who will want to read 'The Complete Book of Wargames' ? To be honest, it's too outdated to appeal to gamers under 50, who nowadays are preoccupied with card-based games like Magic: The Gathering and video games like Baldur's Gate 3. So, it's only Baby Boomers who remain an audience for the book, and likely as a source of nostalgia rather than as a guide for purchasing of wargames. But then again, who am I to say what is happening in the recreation rooms of the Old Folks Homes...........?!